Specifications

CHAPTER 1 Customizing Windows Explorer

Now let’s consider this tweak from the opposite point of view. The reason Windows

displays the delete confirmation dialog box by default is to prevent you from accidentally

deleting a file. You and I are savvy, knowledgeable users, so we know when we want to

delete something, but not everyone falls into this boat. If you have young kids or elderly

folks who use Windows, you know that the delete confirmation dialog box is an excellent

safeguard for these and other inexperienced users.

In that case, you might be wondering if there’s a way to ensure that a novice user can’t

turn off the delete confirmation dialog box. Yes, in fact, there is, although it’s a bit harder

to implement because it involves changing a policy setting on the user’s computer. A

policy setting is a kind of rule that an administrator applies to a Windows system, and that

rule can’t be overridden except by another administrator. To apply a policy setting, you

use the Local Group Policy Editor, which I discuss in detail in Chapter 9, “Policing

Windows 7 with Group Policies.”

NOTE

The Local Group Policy Editor is available only with Professional, Enterprise, and

Ultimate versions of Windows 7. If you’re not running one of these versions, I’ll show

you how to perform the same tweak using the Registry (see Chapter 12, “Tweaking the

Windows 7 Registry”).

You can use two ways to prevent a user from turning off delete confirmations:

. Disable the Display Delete Confirmation Dialog check box that appears in the

Recycle Bin’s property sheet.

. Disable the Recycle Bin’s Properties command so that the user can’t display the

Recycle Bin’s property sheet.

Follow these steps to implement one of these policies:

1. On the other user’s computer, click Start, type

gpedit.msc, and then press Enter to

select the

gpedit program that appears in the search results.

2. Open the User Configuration branch.

3. Open the Administrative Templates branch.

4. Display the property sheet of the policy you want to use, as follows:

. If you want to disable the Display Delete Confirmation Dialog check box, open

the Windows Components branch and then click Windows Explorer. Double-click

the policy named Display Confirmation Dialog When Deleting Files. If you don’t

have access to the Group Policy Editor, open the Registry Editor and create a

DWORD setting named

ConfirmFileDelete with the value 1 in the following key:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

. If you want to disable the Recycle Bin’s Properties command, click Desktop and

then double-click the Remove Properties from the Recycle Bin Context Menu